over + out!

A lot has gotten wrapped up since my last post: 8th Grade honors evening including my speech, farewell party for a good friend and her family, the first half of the baseball season, and the Swap!

These are the hotpads and potholders that I received from the Swap. Aren't they gorgeous?! Thank you to Tiffany, Abbey, Scott, Tatiana, and Jenna! You all created lovely beautility, and I love examining them! What a great treat!


Whenever I could sqeeze in a bit of handwork amidst all the crazy busyness of the end of the school year revelry, I knit on these Monkeys. I have knit a few others and find the pattern kind of self-propelling and then gorgeous when soon complete. I started them after our trip to Cambridge mid-April, so two months of patchy knitting produced these lovelies - not bad!The yarn is Araucania Itata Multi, wool, silk + bamboo, I don't recall the color name, but it reminds me of sangria. I think the Monkeys like best to be knit up in a semi-solid colorway, so this is probably as multi-colored as I would go, but I still love them.I've started more socks with that fancy cocktail-inspired blue, and that Cookie A pattern is proving to be just as addicting to knit. I've been wondering about how I'll pull off wearing such a bright pair of socks, and I think they'll be just the ticket on cool and possibly dreary fall days to come because the color (and handknit socks!) certainly puts a smile on my face!

So, the sky's beginning to lighten up and I should get to packing up the last bits of camp gear and roadtrip treats. We're off to our favorite family vacation tomorrow (Michigania!) and will be gone for a week of fun in the sun. Us moms (we go w/two other families) will be toting our sewing machines, so I hope to have some items to show you when we get back. Have a great week!

pile up

Here are the complete potholders for the Swap!!! I am happy with the way they turned out and that they are done in time! I'm the type who will take full advantage of a deadline extention, a procrastinator of epic history. "Good under pressure" is what some folks call it. wink, wink! They'll start their journey to Swap headquarters later this morning. Thank you to Adrian + Maritza + all my fellow swappers for this challenging and fun opportunity!

Besides that happy pile, other things have been piling up around here - the number of days w/out a post to the blog for instance, sorry. But there's this pile:

and this pile:
and this one too:

A beautiful bundle of tatting thread which I will treat as teeny-tiny crochet cotton. I have been bitten by the crochet-bug big time, and want to make some small motifs for hair clips, key chains, necklaces, brooches, buttons (hey, there's another pile - of ideas!) Last year, for May Day, I crocheted some flower chains with sport weight cotton, and now I'm going to go even smaller! I've been known to dabble in minituae...

Of course, this time of year brings a pile of happy events for attending as well. Our son finishes grade eight in a few days, and there have been concerts, presentations, and field trips full of proud moments, laughs, and comraderie. Coming up: families celebrating together, a formal honors evening, and a lake party, all sure to hold even more proud moments, laughs (and tears), and a speech by me! (That there, is a pile of nerves!)

It is amazing to me that we have gotten to this place in our family life. It is astounding really; I look around and see it all happening, I try to witness each and every moment, and yet it is a blur. It is perpetual and halting all at once.

What kind of piles do you have going on? ("Laundry" is not the kind of answer I'm looking for!)